Clergy gets insights into the 'wounds of war'

PROVIDENCE — With research showing that an overwhelming majority of veterans and active-service members embrace a religious faith, the Providence VA Medical Center on Saturday welcomed community clergy members and faith leaders to a seminar designed to improve their understanding of issues that “warriors and their families” face after coming home.

The Rev. Rotunda East, chief of chaplains at the center, told The Providence Journal that participants “take away a better understanding of military culture, an understanding of the wounds of war and, most importantly, the culpability that civilians have in sending or voting for representatives to send the military into war. Civilians have a responsibility in welcoming these warriors back into community and into society.”

“They have been enlightened and transformed when they go home from here,” said the Rev. T.J. Varghese, the center's Catholic chaplain and pastor of St. Luke Church in Barrington, a co-sponsor of Saturday’s seminar, which was titled “On Military Culture and the Wounds of War.”

Some three dozen clergy members and faith leaders from around Rhode Island attended, representing Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Buddhism and non-denominational congregations. Topics included developing “empathy for veterans who experience hidden wounds and moral conflicts” and a “moment of decision,” which posed this scenario: “You have one bullet. If someone in your group does not die then all the youth will be killed. No suicides allowed. You have one minute to decide: Who will kill? Who will die?”

Through such exercises, chaplain East said, clergy members gain awareness of real-life decisions veterans may have faced — and the impact not only on a soldier’s religious beliefs, but on mental health. Suicide rates among veterans have spiked in recent years, with more than 6,000 suicides among veterans each year from 2008 to 2016, according to a recent VA study. From 2005 to 2016, the rates increased by more than 25%.

“Veterans have questions,” East said. “Like, ‘Where is God? God can never forgive me.’ So this particular program partners with mental health to meet some of those needs, like PTSD. ... We found in research that if you address the spiritual need, those symptoms are reduced.”

Ben Kaler, of the national VA Veterans Experience Office, told The Journal that while “we talk about a lot of tough stuff today, another takeaway is that not all veterans are damaged. A lot of them come home and reintegrate, are thriving business owners, are thriving in their communities.”

Saturday's seminar was presented in conjunction with the National VA Chaplain Center, the VA Office of Veterans Experience and the Veterans Health Administration's Office of Rural Health. It is part of a national program that includes seminars on related topics, including “Pastoral Care with Veterans and Their Families” and “Mental Health Services and Referrals.”

Watch "The War on Terror: Coming Home," a Providence Journal documentary about the mental-health needs of combat veterans,at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9usu1DSCHuA.